Nihonbashi at Night
Artist
Kobayashi Kiyochika 小林 清親
(Japanese, 1847–1915)
Date1880s
Mediummulticolored woodblock print
Dimensions25.1 x 38 cm (9 7/8 x 14 15/16 in.)
ClassificationsPrints
Markingssignature: Kobayashi Kiyochika
Credit LineHarriet B. Bancroft Fund
Object number1998.56
DescriptionAlthough by 1876 there were gaslights all the way from Ginza to Asakusa, the novelist Tanizaki Junichiro (1886-1956), who was from Nihonbashi, wrote that they were few and far between. Kobayashi Kiyochika was fascinated with gaslight and its transformedation of the nighttime experience. About one-fourth of all his Tokyo views are night scenes, and may, including this one, are remarkable for the dep darkness they convey. Here darkness dominates, relieved only by small points of light from streetlights, lanterns, and illuminated building interiors. The traffic across the bridge is impressive even in the depths of night; the darkness is punctuated by the lanterns of predestrians, horse-buses, and rickshaws. But it is the gas streetlights that are the symbol of the new, and Kiyochika uses their illumination to create silhouttes of the traffic and cast shadows.ProvenanceIsrael Goldman, London
On View
Not on view
Utagawa Kunisada I 歌川 国貞 (Toyokuni III 三代 豊国)
about 1836–1838
